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The 2020 rover’s instruments goals are to search for signs of organic molecules and past life and help pave the way for future human explorers. Seven carefully-selected payloads were chosen from a total of 58 proposals received in January 2014 from science teams worldwide, which is twice the usual number for instrument competitions and demonstrates the extraordinary interest in Mars by the science community. The 2020 rover architecture is based on NASA’s hugely successful Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover which safely touched down a one ton mass on Mars on Aug. 5, 2012 using the nail-biting and never before...

The UN agency for Palestinian Arab “refugees,” UNRWA, has caused outrage by apparently giving rockets to Hamas. On Thursday, UNRWA confirmed that 20 rockets had been found in one of its vacant schools in Gaza. UNRWA staff said last week that they had “informed the relevant parties and successfully took all necessary measures for the removal of the objects.” However, Channel 2 reports Sunday that—rather than destroying the rockets—UNRWA workers called Hamas to come remove them. …

JERUSALEM – The belt strapped onto the donkey's body was laden with explosives, the Israeli military said in a statement. The animal was urged forward by Hamas militants, the army said, toward troops stationed near Rafah, inside the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces "engaged the donkey and it exploded at a safe distance,” the army wrote in a blog post. The statement condemned the use of “animals as explosives couriers.” Such beast-borne attacks have been seen before within the bitter confines of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The first such incident appears to have been in Gaza in 1995. But there were frequent...

Unguarded Comments Suggest Kerry Frustration At Civilian Toll In Gaza • 'It's a hell of a pinpoint operation' captured on open microphone Dominic Rushe in New York 20 July 2014 The secretary of state, John Kerry, on Sunday appeared to criticise Israel’s claims about the targeted scope of its attacks on Gaza, as a open microphone caught him talking to an aide ahead of a TV interview. “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation, it’s a hell of a pinpoint operation,” Kerry, who was appearing on Fox News Sunday as part of a tour of all five main US talkshows,...

In an unusual moment during Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace presented Secretary of State John Kerry with video recorded before he came on air. Wallace presented the segment as being in reference to civilians killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, writes the Washington Post. "While you were on camera and while on microphone," Wallace said, "you spoke to one of your top aides between the interviews about the situation in Israel." He then played what the network had recorded. In the clip, Kerry is holding a cellphone conversation with an unidentified person, but Kerry's comments are clear. "It's...

The death toll in Gaza’s Shejaiya neighborhood could have been lower had Hamas allowed residents to leave when they were requested to do so by the IDF, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told BBC Arabic on Sunday. Days ago, Israel distributed fliers and sent text messages calling on residents of Shejaiya to leave their homes. But Hamas, Netanyahu told the British news channel, forced them to stay home, effectively using them as human shields. Hamas has displayed photos of mangled bodies lying on the streets of the neighborhood and of the injured being taken to the city’s Shifa hospital. “I...

President Barack Obama stepped up his efforts Sunday to limit Israel’s gradual destruction of Hamas’ tunnel network in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza, which now conceals many of the rockets and jihadi units that attack Israelis. In a morning call to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama “reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself [but] also raised serious concern about the growing number of casualties, including increasing Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza and the loss of Israeli soldiers,” said a 2.00 p.m. statement from the White House. Israel’s government did not officially respond to Obama’s statement, which came after Israel ground...

A video released by the IDF Sunday shows soldiers in action, destroying a tunnel dug by Hamas terrorists into Israel. The video shows the soldiers stringing explosives and blowing the tunnel up. “This is one of the first tunnels we found during this operation,” a soldier tells the camera. “It was dug in order to infiltrate Israeli communities. The IDF said Sunday that in three days of the ground campaign in Operation Protective Edge, soldiers had found and destroyed dozens of tunnels dug by Hamas terrorists into Israeli territory. Video

The chief editor of a Sudanese newspaper was attacked and beaten by an angry mob late Saturday just days after a televised appearance in which he called for “normalized ties” with Israel. AFP is reporting that Osman Mirghani, editor in chief of Sudan’s Al-Tayar daily newspaper, was taken to Al-Zaytouna Hospital after the mob stormed the paper’s offices Saturday night. …

United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Israel on Sunday to “exercise maximum restraint” and spare civilian lives in its campaign in Gaza, AFP reports. He also condemned what he called the “atrocious action” of Israel in Shejaiya, near Gaza City, where 62 people were killed in an Israeli attack on Hamas terrorists. […] “Gaza is an open wound. We must stop the bleeding now,” said Ban, adding that beyond a ceasefire the “root causes of the conflict” must be addressed. …

An imam in the German capital, Berlin, recently gave a sermon in which he expressed support for Gaza and called for “the annihilation of Jews”. […] “Oh Allah, destroy the Zionist Jews. They are no challenge for you,” he continued. “Count them and kill them to the very last one. Don’t spare a single one of them. Shake the ground beneath their feet. Make them suffer terribly. Deflect their bullets. Disperse them. They behave tyranically all over the world and spread corruption.” …

Since the beginning of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, much of the Egyptian media has laid the blame squarely on the Islamist group Hamas, which controls the tiny Palestinian enclave. Some journalists have even said that all Palestinians are to blame for their current plight. Israel’s escalating attack on the Gaza Strip has triggered worldwide debate. Egypt is no exception. But there is little of the traditional Arab solidarity towards Palestinians to be found in the Egyptian media. Adel Nehaman, a columnist for the Egyptian daily El-Watan, said bluntly: "Sorry Gazans, I cannot support you until you rid yourselves of Hamas."(continued)

Fox News Sunday reports on a hot mic that caught John Kerry mocking Israel's "pinpoint operation" against Hamas in Gaza: [Video]

Kerry Angrily Spars With Fox’s Chris Wallace: ‘You Like To Ask Questions, But You Don’t Like To Get Answers!’ 07/20/2014 After months of shutting Fox News out of his Sunday show appearances, a downed airliner in Ukraine and an ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza compelled Secretary of State John Kerry to finally appear on “Fox News Sunday” A frustrated Kerry relentlessly castigated Fox’s Chris Wallace for continuing to ask questions while the Secretary of State was in the middle of answering. “You like to ask questions, but you don’t like to get answers!” he charged petulantly, before refusing to address...

Video at link shows Palestinians knocking down powerlines with Arabic song chanting in the background.

The Incoherent Excuses for Hating IsraelPosted By Bruce Thornton On July 21, 2014 @ 12:40 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 23 Comments Israel’s military operation to degrade Hamas’ ability to rain rockets down on Israeli cities has stirred up the usual noisy and nasty protests in Europe. We need not dwell on demonstrations by Muslim immigrants, whose genocidal Jew-hatred has been an Islamic tradition for 14 centuries. More revealing is the hatred of Israel by so many Europeans, ranging from leftover leftists and idealizers of the dark-skinned “other,” to far-right xenophobes and morally addled Christians. Whatever its origins, one thing...

Israel Batters Hamas —- Kerry to the RescuePosted By P. David Hornik On July 21, 2014 @ 12:39 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 24 Comments As of Sunday evening, on Day 13 of Operation Protective Edge, Hamas was still fighting on against Israel, although its prospects didn’t look good.With Hamas’s rocket fire on Israel intensifying two weeks ago, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, with Iran’s nuclear program the main thing on his plate, kept ordering only small-scale retaliatory strikes from the air, hoping to avoid a larger conflict. But Hamas kept firing—more and more. So Israel launched Operation Protective Edge—but...

Who Is Killing Palestinian Children?Posted By Anna Geifman On July 18, 2014 @ 12:50 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 44 Comments Political differences aside, few will disagree that Palestinian children are innocent victims of the on-going hostilities in Gaza. IsraelÂ’s air strikes, aimed to defend its citizens from HamasÂ’ terrorization, resulted in civilian casualties, which included child victims. Yet, none other than Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, are responsible for the general humanitarian crisis there and for scores of killed, wounded, and traumatized children.Civilian fatalities are inevitable in any war, and thus far there are 230 in Gaza, despite...

The account for U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Rick Stengel published a tweet with a pro-Gaza hashtag, which was captured by the following screenshot.

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Richard Stengel gave a peculiar apology to outraged Twitter users on Sunday after he tweeted #UnitedForGaza to his 15,000 followers. In a tweet directed to the State Department, Mr. Stengel said, “Critical for a full, credible and unimpeded intl investigation of crash. Urge Russia to honor it’s [sic] commitment,” Twitchy first reported. After receiving swift backlash, the tweet was deleted, and Mr. Stengel sent out a terse explanation. “Earlier tweet with wrong hashtag was a mistake. My bad,” he said. (Snip) Twitter users weren’t buying Mr. Stengel’s apology.